Historian, analyst, negotiator, and former advisor to Republican and Democratic Secretaries of State on Arab-Israeli negotiations, 1978-2003.

Wilson Center Project(s):

The End of Greatness: Why America Can’t Have and Doesn’t Want Another Great President Macmillan/Palgrave (Fall 2014)

Aaron David Miller is currently the Vice President for New Initiatives and a Distinguished Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Between 2006 and 2008, he was a Public Policy Scholar when he wrote his fourth book The Much Too Promised Land: America's Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace (Bantam, 2008). His other books include The Arab States and the Palestine Question: Between Ideology and Self Interest, The PLO and the Politics of Survival, and The Search for Security, Saudi Arabian Oil and American Foreign Policy.

For the prior two decades, he served at the Department of State as an advisor to Republican and Democratic Secretaries of State, where he helped formulate U.S. policy on the Middle East and the Arab-Israel peace process, most recently as the Senior Advisor for Arab-Israeli Negotiations. He also served as the Deputy Special Middle East Coordinator for Arab-Israeli Negotiations, Senior Member of the State Department's Policy Planning Staff, in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research, and in the Office of the Historian. He has received the department's Distinguished, Superior, and Meritorious Honor Awards.

Mr. Miller received his Ph.D. in American Diplomatic and Middle East History from the University of Michigan in 1977 and joined the State Department the following year. During 1982 and 1983, he was a Council on Foreign Relations fellow and a resident scholar at the Georgetown Center for Strategic and International Studies. In 1984 he served a temporary tour at the American Embassy in Amman, Jordan. Between 1998 and 2000, Mr. Miller served on the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. After leaving the state department, Mr. Miller served as president of Seeds of Peace from January 2003 until January 2006. Seeds of Peace is a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering young leaders from regions of conflict with the leadership skills required to advance reconciliation and coexistence (www.seedsofpeace.org).

His media and speaking appearances include CNN (including "American Morning," "Wolf Blitzer Reports,") "The Newshour with Jim Lehrer," FOX News, "The NBC Nightly News," "CBS Evening News," National Public Radio, the BBC, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Al Arabiya, and Al Jazeera. Mr. Miller has also been a featured presenter for the World Economic Forum in Davos and Amman, Harvard University, Columbia University, New York University, University of California at Berkeley, The City Club of Cleveland, Chatham House, and The International Institute for Strategic Studies. His articles have appeared in newspapers, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and The International Herald Tribune.

Related Content for this Expert

"There was a certain amount of naiveté rooted perhaps in the mistaken idea that hope and change -- so effective in getting the president elected -- were somehow relevant to the world of Middle Eastern politics," writes Aaron David Miller. more

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"For me, greatness means the following: You confront one of the three greatest nation-encumbering crises that the country faced; you extract from that crisis — as you weather it — some sort of transformative change that makes the nation better forever; and, in time, you are appreciated by your own partisans, as well as your adversaries, as a true national hero," says Aaron David Miller. more

Universal agreement on those American Presidents that have achieved “greatness” yields a short list. Most will agree on Washington, Lincoln, and FDR… but then the debate begins in earnest. In his new book, “The End of Greatness: Why America Can't Have (and Doesn't Want) Another Great President,” Wilson Center Distinguished Scholar Aaron David Miller provides a challenging analysis of the nature of presidential leadership and what is required for a chief executive to attain that status. Miller previews the book in this edition of Wilson Center NOW.
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"It's the reality that we're being pulled inexorably like a moth to a flame not just toward a military conflict with Assad, but toward bearing the responsibility for fixing -- or worse for creating -- the new Syria...we may well end up in the very place U.S. President Barack Obama has willfully tried to avoid: nation-building," writes Aaron David Miller. more

"In the words of the late Fouad Ajami, I suffer from the prejudice of low expectations. I'll own up to it. But after watching the United States operate in this broken, angry, and dysfunctional region under both Republican and Democratic administrations, and considering our allies and enemies in this situation, we damn well better keep our expectations real," writes Aaron David Miller. more

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"The problem won't be fixed by a coalition of hangers-on and the not-so-willing -- nor, frankly, by the superwilling. This is ultimately a Syrian and Iraqi problem; it will require the kind of local buy-in that doesn't exist now and perhaps has never existed," writes Aaron David Miller. more

"Indeed, stripped to its essence, what the President has outlined isn't some grand strategy to transform the region or even to "ultimately destroy" ISIS; it's a much narrower transactional one to protect the homeland. And here's why," writes Aaron David Miller and Jason Brodsky. more

Please join us as Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times columnist Tom Friedman interviews Aaron David Miller about his new book The End of Greatness: Why America Can’t Have (and Doesn’t Want) Another Great President. more

Yes, Israelis and Palestinians have entered yet another violent round in their seemingly interminable conflict. How did they get into this mess? And, more important, how are they going to get out of it? As we watch the fighting escalate, here are five myths that need correcting.

"As presidential speeches go...it lays out a pretty faithful and accurate vision of how the president sees the world. And let's be clear: It's a world with narrowed options for American power," writes Aaron David Miller on President Obama's speech this week at West Point.

"Key linkages—billions in recent U.S. weapons sales, counter-terrorism cooperation, and all that oil—will keep Riyadh and Washington together for some time to come, whether each side, deep down, really likes it or not," writes Aaron David Miller.

"Putin is angry, he's riled up. He wanted to demonstrate the fact that you cannot take the Russians for granted. And he moved into Crimea and there was nothing -- unless we were prepared to go to war and risk a nuclear standoff or confrontation with the Russians -- that we could really do about it," Aaron David Miller said on Fox News.

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What are the consequences of the latest round of U.S.-Iranian nuclear talks? Will politics in Washington, Tehran, Jerusalem, and other players in the region make a comprehensive agreement possible? Join us BY PHONE as three prominent foreign policy analysts of Iran, Israel, and U.S. policy discuss the negotiations, the region, and the future of U.S.-Iranian relations.

With rising tensions with Hezbollah; civil war in Syria; Nusra on the Golan Heights; the Palestinian move at the International Criminal Court; and the beginning of end game diplomacy with Iran, Israel sits at the nexus of much of what America cares about in the Middle East. Please join us for the first in a series of conversations with prominent Israelis about the future of Israel and the U.S.-Israeli relationship in the run-up to Israel’s March 17 elections.

Are we on the verge of another sustained Israeli-Palestinian confrontation along the lines of 1987-1992 or 2000-2004? Why has Jerusalem become the focus of the current tensions and violence, and what if anything can be done about it? Join us for fascinating conversation with one of Israel’s foremost experts on the city and its political and physical landscape.

As the Obama Administration seeks to fashion a policy to counter ISIS, it confronts a complex situation on the ground, particularly in Syria. Three analysts and experts discuss the military/political landscape in Syria and the challenges it poses.

Please join us as Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times columnist Tom Friedman interviews Aaron David Miller about his new book The End of Greatness: Why America Can’t Have (and Doesn’t Want) Another Great President.

Track-Two Diplomacy toward an Israeli-Palestinian Solution, 1978–2014 is an insider account of a crucial set of negotiations aimed at settling a seemingly endless conflict. It brings out new details of negotiating sessions and internal policy and strategy debates.

The situation in Iraq is as complicated as it is grim. ISIS continues to surge as the US tries to contain its gains through military strikes and direct military assistance to the Kurds. Meanwhile Baghdad boils as a new Prime Minister-designate faces off against an old one who refuses to give way. What are the prospects for checking ISIS and for political reconciliation in Iraq?

The breakdown in the 72-hour Egyptian-brokered ceasefire and the resumption of the conflict between Israel and Hamas threatens to take the Gaza crisis to a new level. What are the prospects for escalation and/or for negotiations to de-escalate the situation? Can the requirements of the parties somehow be reconciled? What is the role of the Palestinian Authority and Egypt going forward? And what is the American role?

The recent upsurge in violence in the West Bank and Gaza have brought the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to a new and dangerous level. Is this just another periodic escalation or have we reached a tipping point that could take the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to an even darker and dangerous place? Is the Fatah-Hamas unity deal dead? Where does Egypt stand? And, against the backdrop of a failed peace effort, is there still a credible and important role for the US?

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Former Congressman Dan Glickman joins us to discuss President Obama’s second term through the lenses of history and Hollywood. Aaron Miller discusses what to expect in the foreign policy arena during a second Obama term.

We convene our environment roundtable for a discussion of unintended consequences resulting from efforts to respond to climate change with Geoff Dabelko, Lisa Friedman, and Stacy Vandeveer. Also, Aaron David Miller joins us for a Syria update.

Aaron Miller is a former Middle East negotiator for republican and democratic administrations having served as an advisor to 6 secretaries of state. He's currently a public policy scholar here at the Woodrow Wilson Center. Stephan Richter is the publisher and editor in chief of The Globalist, the daily online magazine on the global economy, politics and culture which he founded and launched in January 2000. He's also president of The Globalist Research Center.

With the downfall of the Mubarak regime in Egypt protests have quickly spread throughout the Middle East. With many former regional allies of the United States now on the brink of revolution, what are the implications for the U.S. and other western allies after Mubarak's fall? Three of the most experienced experts on the region, David Ottaway, Aaron David Miller, and Barbara Slavin share their insight.

Aaron Miller spent two decades at the U.S. Department of State as an advisor to six Secretaries of State. He is now a Wilson Center Public Policy Scholar focusing on Palestinian and Israeli politics and relations and negotiations in the Middle East.

Aaron Miller spent two decades at the U.S. Department of State as an advisor to six Secretaries of State. He is now a Wilson Center Public Policy Scholar focusing on Palestinian and Israeli politics and relations and negotiations in the Middle East.

Aaron Miller spent two decades at the U.S. Department of State as an advisor to six Secretaries of State. He is now a Wilson Center Public Policy Scholar focusing on Palestinian and Israeli politics and relations and negotiations in the Middle East.